Its preparation is typical of the Carnival festivities although it is a dessert that can be found at any time of the year and in almost all Asturian confectioneries, especially in the central area and mining valleys.
How are casadielles made?
For the puff pastry
½ kg. Of flour
¼ l. of water
20 g. of salt
2 eggs
300 g. of butter
For the filling
200 g. of nuts
200 g. hazelnut
300 g. of sugar
Anise to taste
Frying oil
1 · Mix the flour, salt, water, eggs and 100 g of butter, and make a first very fine dough.
2 · This dough is stretched with the roll and covered with the other 200 g of butter. It is folded as usual and the puff pastry is made. Finally, let it cool in the fridge.
3 · A filling is then formed with the walnuts, the finely ground hazelnuts and the sugar. Mix everything well with your hands and moisten it little by little with the anise until you obtain a compact and light mass.
4 · On a previously floured marble surface, roll out the puff pastry and cut into strips 13 cm long by 10 cm wide.
5 · On top of each strip, place a large 1 tablespoon of the filling and then close the ends, previously moistened with water or egg yolk, pressing gently with a fork.
6 · They are fried in plenty of very hot oil and, shortly after removing them, they are dipped in sugar.
NOTE: . Instead of being fried, Les casadielles can be baked in the oven. In this case, the puff pastry needs ½ kg of butter instead of the 300 g recommended in the recipe.
The traditional filling was only based on ground walnuts, sugar and anise.
Asturian recipe books
If you want to know first-hand Asturian recipes, simple but very rich, we recommend you buy the book «Recipes to love Asturias» by Jose Antonio Fidalgo and the book "On cachopos and other Asturian dishes", written by Juanjo Cima.
Text: © Ramón Molleda for asturias.com
